A group of sun-gawkers were blocking traffic on West 79th Street when the authorities decided to end the madness, forcing them to disperse just as Manhattanhenge was hitting its peak. Police told people to leave at 8:10 p.m., says Alex Israel. The sun hit its perfect spot between the buildings at 8:12.

Alex was there to document the anticipation, and the buzzkill, in the photos below.

A similar scene played out on 72nd Street, where a garbage truck pulled in front of people watching the sunset right at 8:10 a.m. “At 72nd Street they decided to back a garbage truck into the middle of the crowd watching the “show” at exactly 8:10,” wrote William, who sent the photo below. “I begged them to wait 2 minutes and was met with complete indifference. This caused the crowd to scramble out into CPW to get a view.” William wasn’t sure who told the truck to drive there, surmising that they might have been connected to a nearby race in Central Park or perhaps were just from a moving company.

Hopefully there wasn’t an ambulance trying to get somebody to the hospital at the time because it would be a shame if someone’s life was compromised by people looking to Instagram a selfie with the sun.

They would have moved and bunched up at the first siren. You’re worried about ambulances, worry about the corner of Amsterdam & 97th, where JHS wants to build a nursing home: gridlock morning, evening and 3 pm, and now a bike lane.

Sure. Happy to explain, because I responded to this. First off, we absolutely love Manhattanhenge and always want to reasonably accommodate spectators. The problem was that the spectators took over the ENTIRE street on 79th St. between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. At this point, 79th St. is four total lanes, two lanes east and two lanes west. My supervisors and officers politely asked all spectators to move to the sidewalk, or at least the lane of traffic closest to the sidewalk. This would have meant the two center most lanes would have remained open (one lane going east, and one lane going west). We were met with some resistance – some wanted to occupy the center of the street- and then we begin ordering people out of the middle of the street.

Look, I get it, it’s a cool spectacle that only happens a few days a year. We try to make a reasonable accommodation for our resident viewers… (We gave them two of the four lanes of traffic!) But at that same time we also had residents who were in taxis, Ubers, and busses just trying to get home from work, and we cannot spontaneously shut down such a busy street at their expense.

We did not mean to be a “buzzkill,” we are just trying to keep everybody safe and best serve all of our residents. Hope this helps.

How many other special events would you have the streets be closed for an hour for?

I wonder how many of the people complaining here are also among those who are most likely to complain from the reverse position, i.e., when stuck in a vehicle delayed by a street closure for a different special event.

I feel safer knowing these people are off the street! LOL
The police from the 20th precinct say they can’t do anything about the crowd nodding out day and night in front of mcdonald’s on west 71st street, with a school down the block… but seems they can disperse a crowd looking at the sky for a fun event.